All the characters in a well-written story are “special” or they wouldn’t be there–each has their part to play, minor or major.

Major characters often determine plot elements and most writers build the story around them. That last sentence may seem obvious but I’ve read books that have been rewritten from a different character’s point of view yet kept the same plot elements and flow. Check out Ender’s Shadow as one example.

Minor characters often are radically changed as the writing of a book proceeds (Majors can be, too, but that “usually” changes the plot structure); yet, these secondary folk can sometimes surprise a writer.

Take the character Morna, an artificial intelligence, in my recently published book, Notes from An Alien.

I thought she would only be in the first chapter. She soon changed my mind and became, if not a major character, a recurring significant character. In fact, the last words of the book are hers.

The bulk of Notes from An Alien happens in another star-system and almost all the characters have no knowledge of Earth, yet Sena’s daughter, Ararura, writes the last chapter and speaks directly to the Earth-bound reader.

Have you come across any Very Special Characters in your reading?

Have you created any or do you think you might?

Can you imagine other classes of Very Special Characters?

Please, do share your thoughts and experience in the comments :-)

[ Edit: check out the follow-up post—Very Special Characters ~ Revisited ]
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Eleven years ago, I was 54 years old and just beginning, finally, to mature.

I’d been seriously studying the issue of Global Peace for about twelve years.

I hadn’t quite got the principles from my head to my heart…

I saw a Tweet the other day that said: If the author doesn’t cry, the reader doesn’t cry.

Eleven years ago, I did, in fact, start letting myself cry more…

In the post, Publishing Day Thoughts…, I gave a timeline for all the major writerly events that led up to my publishing Notes from An Alien yesterday; but, the deeply emotional transformations I made on that path, the psychological and mental growth that the feelings led to, and the application of Principles of Peace in my daily life weren’t in that post…

It’s one thing to have a Theme burning in your heart and tantalizing your mind; it’s quite another state of affairs
to live through the changes necessary to turn that Theme into a Plot alive with Characters who live the story.

I had to become, in essence, the characters I would eventually meet once I hand my hands on the plot. I began meeting my characters about a year ago. They were all aliens living in a star-system twelve light-years from Earth.

Acutely appropriate for a guy who’d usually felt like an alien himself :-)

Most importantly, I had to use what I’d learned of resignation and sacrifice during ten years of growing up and make a place in my mind and heart for Sena Quaren, the “co-author” of the book.

I think an author has to have a submissive ego to truly let their characters come alive. If the ego can’t get out of the way long enough for the author to form a relationship with their characters, the book will either never get written or be written in a hackneyed and stilted style.

Until eleven years ago, I’d been living a hackneyed and stilted life. Even though there were eruptions of authenticity over the years, I was more amorphous than substantial, more tentative than responsible, more dream-like than imaginative.

I salute the pain suffered in that crucible of preparation. I see it all as a worthy discipline–my paying of long-deferred dues…

So, all-told, I’ve been studying and learning how to live Peace for 23 years and all that effort has reached a culmination in a rather slim book—dense with promise, pregnant with its successor, facing a World of greed and war and holding aloft a banner with words uttered by one of its characters, Morna: “Patience is our weapon of choice.”
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Like this:

Eleven years ago: I was given a Theme for a book. Wrote some of the opening scenes.

Nine years ago: the Theme changed its Plot-potential. Did extensive research and outlining.

Six years ago: the Theme changes Plot-potential again. Wrote a few pages.

Eighteen months ago: I finally had the right Plot ideas for the Theme.

One year ago: I had a scene-by-scene outline written. I began the story’s promotion in the virtual world, Second Life.

Eleven months ago: I began the actual writing.

Eight months ago: I had a full first draft. Did some major revising.

Four months ago: the manuscript was back from the Editor.

Three months ago: the manuscript was approved by a special Review Office.

Since three months ago: about 18 small changes were made in the manuscript.

Please note: since a year ago, I’ve been involved in a constant effort to promote the book through various means. If you really want to know more about all that, check out these past posts on various aspects of my promotion trail (which, by the way, will not by any means end with today’s official publishing act [more on that act tomorrow]):

One of the most common sources claimed for the brilliant ideas writers sometimes display is the fabled Muse. I’ll come back to that source in a minute…

Some writers steal their ideas.

I’m not talking about plagiarism. What they do is “borrow” plots, characters, or themes from books they’ve read. Then, they dress them in different clothes, do some creative plastic surgery, or otherwise mold them into more original guises.

Some people contend there are an extremely limited number of plots and character types available to humans and all writers are always dipping into that pool of dreams. This relates to the Muse and I’ll bring it back up shortly…

There are writers who will tell you there is no magic or psychological mystery to how they come up with ideas for stories. These folks are in the minority and just might be unaware that they’re attributing far to much power to their naturally-limited conscious mind…

Most of us don’t go around all day, or sit at our desks all day, and remain aware of the vast territories of a resource we all share, the Collective Unconscious.

Apparently, we all have a rich storehouse of Archetypes, deep in a space in our minds, that holds idea-complexes that “drive” us to create stories; or, if we don’t take care of our mental hygiene, drive us to sociopathic acts. Hence, many writers’ conversations about the therapeutic value of their work…

The archetypes of the collective unconscious include powerful, basic ideas represented as mythic characters like: The Mother, The Virgin, The Hag, The Hero, The Child, The Lover, The Beast, and, of course, the Beloved Muse who seems to be destined to carry these ideas from their deep haunts up to the light of the writer’s conscious mind…

All this psycho-mumble may or may not be true. But, the entire contents of a book that thrills us and helps us change our lives may or may not be true…

I’m betting on the bookie :-)
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Where do your bright ideas come from?
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